unique coordination with organizations that represented consumer product safety, local first responders, and healthcare providers. Dr. Wiant empowered the sta to participate in Local Emergency Planning Commissions, to learn and use GIS to map old landfills, and to work directly to represent local interests where Superfund sites impacted communi- ties. These eorts were supported by hiring engineers and occupational health sta (i.e., certified industrial hygienists) to address community hazards. During my career in environmental health at the local government level, I have had the pleasure of holding positions with responsi- bilities in food safety, water quality and waste- water, childcare, household chemical waste, hazardous waste, air quality, and emergency preparedness, along with leadership roles as the environmental health director and agency deputy director. Each position provided an opportunity to collaborate with peers to learn, grow, and engage. Currently, I am an environmental public health consultant. As community needs and interests change, so has the scope of the environmental health practice. It also varies widely with large agen- cies having up to 20 or more programs and small agencies only able to provide core pro- grams. Working to assure compliance with sound science-based regulations is founda-
tional for food safety, water quality, and other programs. Working to influence land use cases to address healthy eating, active living, environmental injustice, and local hazards is an important role as well. Explaining that all these issues are encompassed by environ- mental health is the real trick. NEHA and our members currently face the ongoing evolution of the food industry and must continue to engage with many partners to assure food safety. We also must find ways to keep and gain new funding and provide support for our communities. We should become more prepared for emerging issues such as harmful algal blooms and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in our water, wastewater, and biosolids. We must strengthen our risk communication skills to be prepared to engage with citizen science using low-cost tools to gather air and water quality data in our communities. The Spark! Leadership Series and Environmental Health Leadership Academy oered by NEHA are terrific programs to build skills and interface with experts and peers. Here are a couple of issues I hope you will see as priorities for our profession and NEHA: • Assure support for and recognition of envi- ronmental health practitioners and the key roles they play in protecting communities from adverse health impacts.
• Reinforce and enhance the value and rec- ognition of the Registered Environmental Health Specialist/Registered Sanitarian (REHS/RS) credential. • Encourage an active role for environmen- tal health professionals as evidence-based policy advocates as we work in all our environmental programs and to address environmental justice, sustainability, and climate change. I see governmental environmental health professionals as the most can-do part of the public health system. We have great part- ners in industry and academia that we must continue to actively work with and support where possible. Environmental health professionals have more contact with the community than any other element of the environmental public health system. We need to capitalize on the contacts and community members (e.g., the regulated community, local agency con- tacts, the public at large) we interact with to demonstrate the value of our work. As I reflect on the work we do, I like to say, “Pub- lic health is an important part of environ- mental health.”
President@neha.org
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July/August 2023 • Journal of Environmental Health
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